Celebrate the Darkness (and Light)

"Both light and shadow are the dance of Love." ~ Rumi

I've highlighted my logo photograph to illustrate the value of darkness. Aren't the shadows lovely? They draw me in. I want to dwell in them! They dance with the shell. They seem to caress the curves and lines. They define the curves and lines. Imagine this shell with no shadows.....

This is how I see people. Your shadows draw me in! I confess I want to dwell in them ;) And they are rich in potential. A person with no Shadow ....who would that be?

Enjoy the dark (and lights) of this season. And come show me your Shadow :)

Befriending Ourselves

"Meditation practice isn't about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better. It's about befriending who we are already." ~ Pema Chodron ~ Photograph by Edward Steichen

Most of us want to feel less stressed and more at peace. We've been told that meditation can help with that. I notice that "befriending who we are already" as a meditator and as a somatic therapist does bring peace and healing.
 
A founding father of CranioSacral therapy, Rollin Becker, said that that when he stopped doing anything....and just put his hands on clients and listened, treatments were more effective. I agree. Listening is powerful and transformative. It's a kind of befriending.

"If anything is sacred, the human body is sacred." ~ Walt Whitman

Photograph by Edward Weston

You've got a sacred body!

To me that means it is imbued with Spirit; it means it IS Spirit. You could say that listening to your body is prayer.

During a Lyrical Healing session that's what happens; We listen to You. We listen to your body and your words, your heart and your head. It is all worth tending to. Because healing, in my mind, involves Tending and Befriending. Seems like a good idea to tend to something that's sacred, right? Not to fight it or resist it or try to fix it.

"The best this to do when it is raining is to let it rain." ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Photograph by Edward Steichen

What does it mean to let it rain when it's raining? (Or snow when it's snowing ;-) My answer points to a core tenet of Craniosacral therapy.

Yesterday I was feeling agitated, angry, distressed. I went to a quiet place to walk it out, leaned against a tree, and felt its neutral witnessing. (Yes, I feel things from trees ;-) The tree did not shame or judge or suggest, and that felt good!

The tree was practicing mindfulness! I think of mindfulness as Neutral Witnessing. Listening, seeing, being with what's there.

Craniosacral touch is a kind of neutral witnessing. We honor the body and psyche by listening. We don't impose our will, we ALLOW and trust the body and psyche to heal itself. As Carl Rogers said, “The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change." Carl Rogers was not a Craniosacral therapist, but he could have been! When we as Craniosacral therapists are just WITH what's there, whether it's sticky fascia, tense muscle, or inner critic, then healing starts to happen. The body/psyche feels seen, honored, trusted, and " Inner Physician" (CST's name for Inner Wisdom}, takes over.

Are we blaming, rationalizing, blocking, approving, judging, grasping? Loving, hating, adoring? Mindfulness to me seems to be noticing any and all and ...just noticing.

I know I am going to practice being like the tree -- standing tall and accepting. Being with myself, being with you, noticing, allowing.

"...instead of struggling to erase what are referred to as negative emotions, we can learn to use them in positive ways. we could describe the principle like this: while pounding on the piano keys may produce noise, removing them doesn't exactly further the creation of music. The principles of Music and Living aren't all that difference, we think." Benjamin Hoff, from The Tao of Pooh
Art by Wassily Kandinsky

I don't believe in "negative emotions." I believe in misguided parts of ourselves. Recently I tuned into what felt like tension in my belly and I felt love! My belly was trying to give me the message "beware!" That felt like self-love, if misguided (there was no real danger). It's as if a protective entity was looking out for me. So instead of shutting out the warning, I can thank it. I can hear it and help it to harmonize with the rest of me. I can help you do that too.

"The important thing to remember about dragons is that they guard our treasure. When a dragon appears, it means gold is right behind it -- if we have the courage to stand our ground and fully meet it.

Sera Beck, from Red, Hot, and Holy

Art by William Blake

What is the gold behind the dragon that is Covid-19?

And what do we gain by having the courage to fully meet our own inner dragon(s)? We come to realize that the dragon is not all that scary...that facing it tames it. And the gold is knowing that we can tame it.

By facing traumatic or scary memories, by feeling our own pain, we come to know that "behind" those dragons is our magnificent, victorious, true self.

No mortal, or fairy either, can tell where Fairyland begins and where it ends."

George McDonald, in Phantastes

Art by William Blake

...and who can tell where the Sacred begins and where it ends?.... Can we see the Transcendent? Is it "in" our souls? In our hearts? If it's in our hearts is the Transcendent pumped through our veins? If so, is it in our muscles, skin, and organs?

Lyrical Healing sessions are based on the understanding that WE (including our bodies and our emotions) are of The Transcendent.

Inhaling Holiness

"Be conscious of this unconscious prayer (of your breath), 

For she is the most holy place of pilgrimage.

She wishes for you to enter this temple,

Where each breath is adoration

Of the infinite for the incarnate form."

Shiva Rea,

from Radiance Sutras by Lorin Roche
Art by Mark Rothko